RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The visual white matter: The application of diffusion MRI and fiber tractography to vision science JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 072793 DO 10.1101/072793 A1 Ariel Rokem A1 Hiromasa Takemura A1 Andrew Bock A1 K. Suzanne Scherf A1 Marlene Behrmann A1 Brian Wandell A1 Ione Fine A1 Holly Bridge A1 Pestilli Franco YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/09/02/072793.abstract AB Visual neuroscience has traditionally focused much of its attention on understanding the response properties of neurons along the visual pathways. This review focuses instead on the properties of the white matter connections between these neurons. Specifically, we provide an introduction to methods to study the human visual white matter using diffusion MRI (dMRI). This method allows us to measure the white matter connections in individual visual systems in vivo, allows us to trace long-range connections between different parts of the visual system, and to measure the biophysical properties of these connections. We explain the principles underlying dMRI measurements and the basics of modeling these data. We review a range of findings from recent studies on connections between different visual field maps, on the effects of visual impairment on the white matter, and on the properties underlying networks that process visual information that supports visual face recognition. Finally, we discuss a few promising directions for future studies. These include new methods for analysis of MRI data, open data-sets that are becoming available to study brain connectivity and white matter properties, and open-source software for the analysis of these data.